Vaccine initiative may be derailed by politics?

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Advance Market Commitment proposal may be a victim of a disagreement between G8 countries:

A spat between the U.S. and France is blocking progress on a novel, business-friendly plan to persuade drug companies to develop vaccines for deadly diseases in the developing world.

The G8 leaders meet in St Petersburg at the end of this week.  The UK Government is still pushing for an agreement to a pilot program.  As recently as 26 June, Prime Minister Tony Blair said:

we will discuss specifically the launch of a pilot, called Advance Market Commitment, to stimulate research and development into vaccines for killer diseases.

However, if there is no agreement to take this forward as a G8 initiative, an alternative is for it to be endorsed as a good idea in principle by the G8, with an agreement that it should be implemented by a consortium of countries willing to contribute. These might include the UK, Italy and Canada, and possibly the United States; as well as donors outside the G8 who may be willing to take part. 

See also Christine Gorman, K4D, UPI.